Panama - Transportation

Motor vehicles transport most agricultural products. In 2002, there were
11,592 km (7,203 mi) of roads, of which about 4,079 km (2,534 mi) were
paved, including 30 km (19 mi) of expressways. The principal highway is
the National (or Central) Highway—the Panamanian section of the
Pan American Highway—which runs from the Costa Rican border, via
Panama City and Chepo, to the Colombian border. The 80-km (50-mi)
Trans-Isthmian Highway links Colón and Panama City.
Panama's rugged terrain impedes highway development, and there
are few good roads in the republic's eastern sections. In 2000
there were 256,368 registered passenger cars and 138,490 trucks and
buses.

In 2002, the Panamanian merchant marine registered 4,838 ships, totaling
118,878,358 GRT. Most of the ships are foreign-owned but are registered
as Panamanian because fees are low and labor laws lenient. International
shipping passes almost entirely through the canal ports of
Cristóbal, which serves Colón, and Balboa, which is the
port for Panama City.

Panama is a crossroads for air travel within the Americas. There were
107 airports, 41 of which had paved runways in 2001. The most widely
used domestic airline is Compañía Panameña de
Aviación (COPA), which also flies throughout Central America. Air
Panama International serves passenger traffic to the US and South
America, and Internacional de Aviación (INAIR) is an
international passenger and cargo carrier. Panama has two international
airports, the largest, Tocumen International Airport in Panama City and
the smaller, Omar Torrijos International Airport, 19 km (12 mi) east of
Panama City. In 2001, 1,114,700 passengers were carried on scheduled
domestic and international airline flights.

The Panama Canal—built during 1904–14 by the US Army Corps
of Engineers, under Col. George Washington Goethals—traverses the
isthmus and is 82 km (51 mi) in length from deep water to deep water.
The great technical feat involved in constructing the canal was to cut
through the mountains that span the region, dam the Chagres Lake, and
then design and build the three sets of double locks that raise and
lower ships the 26 m (85 ft) between lake and sea levels. The first
passage through the canal was completed by the S.S.
Ancon
on 15 August 1914. On 1 October 1979 when the US-Panama treaties went
into effect, the canal was administered by the joint Panama Canal
Commission, on which the United States had majority representation
through the end of 1989. The United States turned over complete control
of the canal to Panama on 31 December 1999. The canal takes ships of up
to 67,000 tons. An oil pipeline across the isthmus was opened in 1982 to
carry Alaskan oil; its capacity is 830,000 barrels per day. The Bridge
of the Americas across the canal at the Pacific entrance unites eastern
and western Panama as well as the northern and southern sections of the
Pan American Highway. Panama, the United States, and Japan have
commissioned a $20-million study to search for alternatives to the
canal. The feasibility of building a new canal at sea level is to be
examined; alternatively, the Panama Canal Commission has indicated its
intention to increase the width of the Gaillard Cut (Corte Culebra),
since larger ships are restricted to one-way daylight passage, due to
the narrowness. Panama also plans to consolidate the ports of Balboa on
the Pacific and Cristóbal on the Caribbean into a single
container terminal system.